PixlBit

Scientists over at FAST are using the Balance Board to measure physiological signs of people who are up to no good.

Everyone who has traveled on an airplane within the past few years can sympathize with the tightened security measures that flyers must conform to these days. The homeland security funded project FAST (Future Attribute Screening Technology) is always hard at work developing new technology designed to evaluate dangerous activity in a much different way than simply having passengers walk through metal detectors.

FAST focuses on using a person's own physiology against them. For example: pulse, breathing rate, eye movement, fidgeting, and body temperature. According to the project manager Robert Burns, "there's been a large field of research that ties your physical reactions to your mental state, your emotional state. We're looking for those signals that your body gives off."

To develop the technology required for such investigations, over twenty million dollars have been spent. Recently FAST has begun implementing a brand new tool to aid them in measuring suspect's physiological signs, and this item costs less than one hundred dollars: the Wii's Balance Board.

With the aid of the balance board, FAST can see on screen changes in movement patterns as suspects are interrogated. Studies are currently in progress using the Balance Board to see if scientists can determine "a level of fidgeting that would suggest the need for secondary screening."